IER newsletter promo: Which Leeds United players are a parental dream?

Yorkshire Evening Post

Transcript

00:00Graeme, good morning. It's Wednesday, which means that it's the day of the week in which the Inside

00:05Elland Road newsletter is released at around lunchtime. Lots and lots of people have already

00:10subscribed to receive those. It's pieces and articles and interviews that you don't get

00:17anywhere else, that you've conducted and curated. What can we expect from this week?

00:24This week's newsletter, I thought was a little bit timely after some of the responses and reaction

00:32to Saturday's game and the defeat and some of the kind of criticism aimed at individuals and

00:37whatnot. Because I had been thinking of late about writing about Leeds United, the parental

00:43experience, my son, the Leeds United player, speaking to parents of players who played for

00:50Leeds and specifically the journey kind of through the academy to the first team and

00:56making it or not making it and landing in that brutal realm of criticism and social media content

01:03and what that's like to read as a parent. I don't think we often think about that when we're

01:08haranguing our players online. So yeah, I spoke to a few parents, got some nice stories

01:17and actually in a few of the cases where I was speaking to them, they all got quite emotional

01:24while talking about the various challenges and pitfalls and also their pride.

01:29Because whilst there's lots of difficulties and downs, there's also lots of ups as well,

01:34goals, debuts, promotions, dream moves, whatever it might be. So yeah, a bit of a parental view

01:41of Leeds United. Who did you manage to speak to then? Reel off a list of names, if you will.

01:49So I spoke to Lindsey Crosby, mum of Calvin Phillips. I spoke to Louise Shackleton,

01:55mother of Jamie. I spoke to Pete McAlmont, whose son Alfie was at Leeds and has played yesterday

02:01in China for Central Coast Mariners for ex-Leeds coach Mark Jackson. And I also spoke to Seb

02:08Carroll, who of course played for Leeds and then had a son come through the academy at Leeds and he

02:14left this summer to go to Cervette. And I feel like they all kind of had similarities in a lot

02:22of what they said, but they had different stories and their sons had different experiences at Leeds

02:26and all I think are pretty well known to Leeds fans. So hopefully subscribers will enjoy it.

02:33Yeah, just on the topic of parenting a Leeds United player, I mean, just hypothetically,

02:38I know we do this on the podcast occasionally and those who listen will be aware of this, but

02:43you know, who are the Leeds United players that you'd quite like to parent? Obviously, you know,

02:48you are a parent and you've brought up a number of children, possibly as many as a Leeds United

02:55squad. But I mean, who would you like to parent? And also on the flip side, who do you think would

03:03give you an absolute nightmare? I imagine that Brendan Aronson would be a very easy child

03:13to parent. I can't imagine him giving you any grief whatsoever. He'd probably call you sir

03:18and he'd definitely be in bed before lights out. You know that when he's in his room,

03:25he's gone to sleep. You know, he's not playing computer games. He's not smoking in there.

03:30He's definitely not in the park smoking weed with his friends. So I think probably for an easy life,

03:38you'd probably say Brendan Aronson, wouldn't you? I would imagine actually the Aronsons might see

03:42this and then tell a very different story. That'd be an interesting newsletter actually,

03:46if Brendan actually was an absolute nightmare as a child and his parents still can't speak about it

03:51because of the trauma that it brings up. Who would I absolutely not want to parent?

03:58That's a really good question.

04:01Just on the topic of the players that you would like to parent, again, I think Pascal Stroik would

04:08be a very, I don't know, respectful young man when he was a teenager coming up. And he seems to be,

04:15still the image of that right now. Very quietly and softly spoken, but yeah, I could see that.

04:24Yeah, I could also see, given how Pascal looks, that people would see us next to each other and

04:29they would laugh. They would laugh and say, come on, who's his real dad? Because he's obviously

04:36a much larger human than I am and probably a great deal better looking as well. Who would I not

04:45like to parent? It feels like such a personal attack, such an unnecessary, hypothetical,

04:54personal attack. Dan James, because you could never catch him to give him a clip around the ear.

05:03You'd always just be dashing around like Dash from the Incredibles.

05:06Yeah, that's probably not a bad shot. Probably Willy Nyanto because you could never really be

05:12mad at him. He'd probably just grin at being told off and that would make me, that is a red

05:21rag to a bull for me. And it happens frequently when they laugh when I get angry. So I wouldn't

05:27want another one that was making me angry and laughing about it. So maybe Willy Nyanto. What

05:33about you? Who would you least like to parent? Well, having not had the privilege of becoming

05:39a parent, I couldn't really tell you what the difficulties are. I'd say maybe Joe Roden as he's

05:48kind of getting to the elder teenage years, because he's quite a bit bigger than I am.

05:56And I just don't think I'd be able to sort of rule the roost anymore. It would kind of be a passing

06:01of the baton. And if he clocked on, I think he might know that he might be able to get his own

06:07way a few times. Also, I would imagine he would let you know if he wasn't happy about various

06:15rules, various expectations, things that you might have asked of him that he wasn't

06:20agreeing with. Judging by the way he gets on on the football pitch and how he holds his teammates

06:26to standards, shall we say? Well, that little segment is just kind of a little teaser of this

06:31week's Inside Elland Road pod, but it also serves as a little bit of promo for the Inside

06:37Elland Road newsletter that Graeme writes weekly. If you've thought about what it

06:44potentially could be like to parent a Leeds United player or what the experience is like for family

06:49members, then definitely get subscribed to the Inside Elland Road newsletter. You can find

06:56that on the Yorkshire Evening Post's website in the newsletter section. Graeme will be very

07:02grateful that you'll be receiving his pearls of wisdom in your inbox every Wednesday lunchtime.

07:09Thank you very much to those who already have signed up.

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